


[Kingdom Hearts] Revelations

by HeartlessPhantom



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Original Character(s), Original Universe, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-15 07:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7212589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartlessPhantom/pseuds/HeartlessPhantom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kazu Yuuki, a seventeen-year-old teen caught in a war between the Light Faction and Darkness Faction. At a young age, he was recruited into the Darkness Faction by force. Now he lives as an elite member, a person, without any identity for himself. But his new experiences will change him forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. QUESTIONABLE EXISTENCE

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yes, this is the revision of "[Kingdom Hearts] Phantom's Journey" with a better plot and major change in characters. I felt it is fitting since I was unsatisfied with the original product, and decided to redo it entirely with a brand new concept.**

**ARC I:**

**Antinomy**

**Chapter I:**

_**QUESTIONABLE EXISTENCE** _

The world we live in today is separated into two factions; Light and Darkness. These factions divide us from each other and springs conflict upon the other. The Light Faction, wishes to keep the balance between them and Darkness on equal balance. However, the Darkness Faction wish to upset that balance, in order to achieve greater power by conquering the Light Faction. Thus, they created the Calamity Project, a mission with the main objective of eliminating the Light Faction. In order to accomplish this task, the Keyblades were the key to doing so. These mysterious weapons were passed down from our ancestors, the key weapon ideally forged to vanquish the Light. As always, there was a traitor among the shadows, a special blacksmith became a renegade and escaped, passing the knowledge of the Keyblade towards the Light. Now, each faction has a based academy specializing in training the youth of today into full-fledged Keyblade Warriors. Light begets darkness, darkness begets light. They can't live without the other, and they can never work together. Therefore, an everlasting battle. This follows the story of Kazu Yuuki, an elite soldier who lacks an identity.

. . .

"Ahh!" Someone screamed. I felt a strong gust of wind push me back, at the same time, I saw a faint silhouette of someone fly by me. I quickly turn my head in 180 rotation, my eyes locked on the person that slid across the stone floor. Carelessness will get you killed without a second thought; I was taught that in the academy. We were on a scouting mission, tasked to wipe out a Boss Heartless. Heartless were supposedly the darkness within people's hearts, we defeat them to gather materials for Keyblades, that's as far I was told. We were in an open field, no trees for miles, only grass and Heartless to sneak up on us. I turn my head towards the direction the body came from, and there it was: a Boss Heartless. A colossal one at that, the Heartless was difficult to see, because it had jet black skin, it's eyes shined a bright yellow, and it had big wings, but I doubt it would be able to fly with that weight it would need to pull.

"Kazu Yuuki, eliminate the beast in front of you and gain its rare materials." the mission advisor's voice rang into my ear via the earpiece I was wearing. "Understood," I spoke back into my mic. I open the palm of my right hand and summon _Two Become One_ , my Keyblade. The Heartless seems to have been severely weakened by my squadmates, I assumed I was only a backup just in case something bad happened. In any case, I sighed to myself and ran up to the Colossal Heartless, it's movements were slow so I had nothing to worry about. It's hand attempted to punch me, I dodge it and jump onto its hand. Regaining my balance, I ran up its arm, I reached it's shoulder and jumped high into the air. I pointed my Keyblade towards the Heartless, "Firaga." I cast a magic spell. The orb of fire that formed at the tip of my Keyblade, launched itself at the Colossal Heartless, striking the head, and it evaporated into black smoke and sunk into the ground. I defeated it. I fell back to the ground, landing on my two feet. The recoil that I felt from hitting the ground circulated throughout my entire body. The Heartless dropped the materials, my team collected the fourteen _Dark Shards_ it dropped.

 _Dark Shards_ are drops that we collect from the various Heartless that appear all over the land, we use these resources to make the Keyblades and expendables, such as potions.

"Good work, Yuuki." My squadmate patted my back roughly.  
"It's nothing too much.. just a simple task that I wasn't needed " I replied to him.  
"Well, we have to trail back, see you." He said waving goodbye to me as he and the others walked off.  
"See you," I said, then trailed back to the academy on my own.

The academy, a school that has a training program and missions for each individual student to accomplish as homework, in addition to regular courses. These training sessions were considered important in our society, physical exams would be held for such sessions, testing our progress as soldiers and how well we are able to think on the battlefield. Students would struggle to try to balance regular studies and combat studies. The purpose of this academy is to train talented soldiers to send onto official missions into the Light Faction in the preparation for the final stage of the Calamity Project. Even though we were still in the academy, the higher-ups send the top students on these "important" missions and sometimes, assist the average students on basic scouting missions. It sounded like our army were so desperate for troops they have to send out students in the middle of training, by that logic, we aren't that well organized. But I guess it was alright since many troops were a loss in the first stage of the Calamity Project. The Calamity Project's purpose is to gain control of the Light Faction to increase power and land, but major casualties arose from the first mission; many soldiers were killed. So we, the youth, were forced into the academy to train for the mission, and around 25% of the students in the academy were taken from the Light Faction's main city during the raid at a young age. I was one of those students that were taken away, I won't elaborate on this.

"Kazu Yuuki." A familiar female voice spoke into my headset.  
"Yes," I responded.  
"Report." She ordered.  
"Colossal Heartless defeated, a total of fourteen Dark Shards procured."  
"Return to your room and rest up. Await further instructions."  
"..Understood." I agreed, without a second thought.

I returned to my dormitory room at the academy. I took off my scouting uniform and left it on the floor in a mess. I then changed into my sleeping clothes, just a shirt, and jeans. As ordered, I rested on my bed and waited till I drifted off into sleep.

**END**

**Next Time:**

_**QUESTION YOURSELF** _

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is the end of the first chapter, let me know what you liked and what you didn't like, and some tips on how I should improve this. Take care!**


	2. QUESTION YOURSELF

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazu is tasked to assassinate one of the Light Faction Academy's elite members, Ayako Tsumura.

**ARC I:**

**Antinomy**

**Chapter II**

_**QUESTION YOURSELF** _

 

The next day, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock going off. After turning it off with a press of a button, I grabbed it and held it close to my face. My eyes weren't focusing on the object. I got used to it since my vision was always hazy in the first one to two minutes of waking. I read the hands, it was 5:01. I got out of bed, I had to get ready for school, otherwise, I would face punishment.

I walked over to my closet and pulled out my uniform from the hangers. I put on the black pants, gray dress shirt, and blazer over it. I walked over to the door and grabbed my bag and hung it over my shoulder. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my hair was a mess. My hair was long, well, not as long that it reaches my back, just enough to cover most of the back of my neck. My bangs were even worse, it hung over my left eye and ended up covering almost half my face. I was never told to keep my hair neat, only to cut it to keep it at appropriate length.

My caretaker spoke into my earpiece, "You have a mission scheduled for nighttime. Report to me later in my office for details. For now, just head to class." Her voice was clear.  
"Understood," I said, putting on my black leather shoes. I walked out of my door, locked it, and headed for class.

Classes at this academy were very simple. Just seven classes focusing on education, and the last one is a two hour long class for combat; as a result, school ends at five o'clock. The combat class teaches us the basics on fighting, which comes in handy in one-on-one training exercises and eventually, a real battle to the death. There are various lessons for us to be versatile on the field, for example, disarming your opponent. It is useful yes, but only for a split second opening if you're facing Keyblade Wielders since the blade can just reappear in their hand a split second after disarming them. The academy even created facilities to accommodate to the students needs in the combat field. But that just erected more lessons from our strict instructor. These facilities allow us to use materials like Dark Shards or rarely Dark Gems to create expendables, such as potions for healing wounds and mana restoration for magic. The dark essence the Heartless leave behind are key components to brewing the potion, as well as herbal ingredients and exotic ones to keep it stable. For example, using the dark essence of Heartless, a calendula-a plant grown all over the world, and the Dark Shard to stabilize the dark essence as it is hard to contain, this creates a healing potion.

The academy is a huge building, it was easy to get lost in your own school. It's understandable since every single hallway and classroom looks the same. It seems like a labyrinth inside the school, everything looks the same no matter where you look. In the middle of the school, is the courtyard, or battlefield I should say. It's where our combat class and training takes place. That's pretty much the only thing that stands out in this school.

**. . .**

**TIME SKIP: AFTER SCHOOL**

I walked towards the brown wooden door at the end of the hallway, "Can I come in?" I asked, knocking.  
"You may." A female voice spoke.

I opened the door and walked in. It was the Emigrace's office, otherwise known as the Head of the Darkness Faction Recruitment Program. Her office room is unusually dark this time around, the only source of light was her desk lamp, the light hovered over some papers I walked closer to the light and closer to the desk. My eyes hovered over the paper and carefully examined it. It was an assassination mission.

"As you saw," she spoke. The lights suddenly come on and startled me a bit. I look around for Emigrace and saw her walking towards me from the doors. Her presence was overwhelming, almost as if she was going to attack me at any second. She's infamous for scaring recruits and students alike. It was normally due to her cool tone whenever she speaks.  
"This is an assassination mission." She spoke sternly and waved the paper in front of my face. Her gaze was clearly locked on me, it was deadly. I felt as if my life would be in danger if I miss one detail for this mission.  
"As in, don't fuck it up." She said directly, and giving a small sigh after. "Listen up, you have to infiltrate the Light Faction Academy and assassinate Ayako Tsumura, she's one of their top students. We have been planning this out for you for the past month. We have her schedule, an entire layout of the school, the time she would be sleeping, and an air ventilation route to her room." She flipped through various papers, showing that they spent a lot of work into this.  
"Isn't that.. stalking?" I questioned.  
"Yes, and we needed to do what was necessary to make this successful. Their security was very weak, it was no problem." She said, clearly laid back.  
"Then why were you staring at me with the intent of murdering me if I fail?" I asked.  
"You are full of questions, it was like when I first met you back then." She said, getting nostalgic and off topic. She snapped back into reality after a few minutes, "Oh, sorry. I was on a nostalgia trip. Back to the topic, you shouldn't fail because this is very important and will bring us closer to the final step of the Calamity Project, So I made preparations, to ensure you'll successfully assassinate someone. We couldn't anyone else to do it, and with your skills and ability to stay calm under such situations make you the perfect candidate. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't get lost." She explained and handed the papers to me.  
"Understood." I took the papers and she guided me out the door.

Emigrace, the Head of the Darkness Faction Recruitment Program, also my caretaker. She is responsible for all of my actions and is the reason why I am here now. She recruits potential teens that can be turned into hardened soldiers with enough training; that's what she saw in me. I was taken under her wing four years ago. Since then, she forced me into intense training, day after day, it was tiring and I wanted to give up so many times. But I pushed on and improved myself. I was the first recruit she ever had any real interest in, so she often pushed me to break my limitations. I trained under her for two years then she enrolled me into this academy, she told me that my ability to wield my Keyblade was unlike any she has ever seen. She said I had a "natural" feel of fighting. I didn't understand it. But I can tell that her interest in me grew deeper, and she was ecstatic whenever I exceeded her expectations. She was almost obsessed with me, going as far to start monitoring my health, my behavior, my mentality, everything. Even making me she wear an earpiece every single day. To feed me information that I would need, and everything that I need to do. Plus, it acted like a tracker for her, so she can pinpoint my location. However, I was told that the range was limited only in the areas controlled by the Darkness Faction, so if I were to go to the Light Faction Academy at this hour for my mission, I would drop out of her radar. She even said that I might have a gift although I didn't think for a second I would have a gift.. for fighting anyway. But the more I think about it, I don't exactly remember how I felt at the time, my memories were very fuzzy, it was strange. I only kept feelings of dread and hurt, but that's about it. That's all I remembered about my past, everything was blurred. It was frustrating, but I didn't express that. It felt wrong, very wrong.

I decided to go over my thoughts in my room till dusk.

The mission carefully stated that I should quietly kill my target.. to prevent any other issues. The map of the academy was in the small stack of papers too. The layout was similar to this academy, almost paralleling each other. Was it coincidence? I don't know at this point. I went back to the mission guidelines to look over it again. I am instructed to wear my school uniform for this mission, why? Doesn't that sound strange? It doesn't even specify that I should hide my face with a mask or anything. There is a possibility that they thought it was unneeded for this mission. But shouldn't you wear a mask regardless?

Emigrace stopped my train of thought, "You are unable to wear a mask because we are making ourselves known to the light. We are emerging from the shadows and taking action, that's the point."  
I should be used to this really, "Are you watching me?"  
"Of course. For security reasons, we installed a camera in your room." Her carefree tone rang into my ears.  
"That is very worrying."  
She giggled a bit, "Have fun reviewing the mission."  
At that point, I couldn't even bother to relax. Since now I found out that she has a surveillance camera in my room.. watching me twenty-four hours and seven days a week. I felt my privacy stripped away from me. I reviewed the mission and the schematics of the school one more time before waiting for dusk.

I waited at the outskirts of the academy in our territory. Waiting for the signal to start the mission by the head council.

"Mission start." I received the signal from the other end. I start dashing into the thick woods. I have to be very careful once I get there. I had doubts about their security being very lax, but I didn't have any reason to distrust anyone. But at this moment, I'm the only one I should trust. I'm on my own, I need to do what it takes to finish the mission and seek my way back home. Without any problems.

As expected, traveling there is more difficult than I thought. As least I didn't have to sneak in an open area. But the thick roofs of the trees prevent any moonlight to shine my way. I was in complete darkness, but in these situations, I was taught to rely on my senses. I manage to get through to the Light Faction's Academy gate by hopping tree to tree. I hid in the bushes and took a small glimpse at the gate. The guards were sleeping. "Seriously?" I said, beyond disbelief.

I shook off the feeling and ran over to the three-meter high stone wall and ran up the wall, allowing me to dive into a small blind spot at the bottom. I hid in the shadows and advanced towards the dormitory building on the west wing.

I snuck inside the school and carefully made my way to the dorms. As expected, the entire school had it's lights off, which means it everyone in the dorms should be sleeping. I locate the air ventilation in the ceiling in the lobby. I used my Keyblade to unlock the vent cover, I jumped into the shaft and crawled through the vent shaft.

Keyblades have the mysterious power of unlocking anything. It is unknown why Keyblades have this power, some believe it is the power of the wielder at work, others believe the Keyblade can use the ability regardless. Since Keyblade Wielders can unlock anything using their Keyblades, each faction had to stop using locked doors for hidden secrets and had to devise secret passageways to bypass this problem.

I made my way to my target's room, the map was correct. I busted the vent cover open and jumped down into the room. I looked around, it was completely dark, but I felt around for something that resembles a bed. I noticed a wooden bed, with white covers. There was a lump in the shape of a body. I got up removed the covers; I was tricked. It was a line of pillows, the cheapest thing to do. My eyes flared at the sudden flash of the bedroom light. I heard a girl's voice yell at me, "Intruder!"

"Dammit." I cursed under my breath. I looked in the direction of the voice, and the target, Ayako Tsumura, was standing in the closet wearing her uniform.  
"So you're from the Darkness Faction, correct?" She questioned. Her hair was as white as her uniform, the uniform she wore was a white military uniform with gold highlights, with a short white skirt with black stockings and white boots to top it off.  
"Yes, and you must be Ayako Tsumura, an elite soldier of the Light Faction Academy," I said. This was bad news.  
"Correct, I was unaware on how much information your people gathered on me. But your stealth skills are lackluster, we noticed your people snooping around the academy, mapping it out all the way to my room." She explained. Her gaze was sharp, her eyes had fierce determination.  
"Was that why security was low? To capture me? Your people are quite perceptive." "At least you're able to tell that much. But that's enough.." She opened the palm of her gloved hand, summoning her Keyblade. It glowed in bright white as it summoned. "..you're coming with me." She pointed her weapon towards me. I felt a menacing aura around her, her eyes gave off the vibe of a fiery soul.  
"..Shit." I cursed under my breath. I quickly turned around and kicked the door open, rushing out in a flash and into the hallway. She brought the chase on and projected a flurry of attacks in my direction, "Triple Blizzaga!"  
Three separate orbs of ice were sent flying into my direction. In retaliation, I summoned Two Become One, and swung at the orbs and sent them to fly into the wall, which formed a huge ice crystal. I quickly turned around and ran, I noticed the lights flicker on and all the students emerge from the rooms to see the commotion. "What the-SHIT!" One of them gawked at the sudden appearance of the huge ice crystal near his door.

"What in the world is going on..?"  
"Quiet down already.."  
"Who's that..? Ayako..?"

All around me, I hear comments of the students as I run past them. Ayako has halted her line of fire, valuing the lives of her fellow students. Even though she's the enemy; it's admirable. Some of the students tried to grab me but I knocked them down with my weapon. I made my way to the courtyard area, I jumped from the window of the viewing area to get here. Ayako closely followed from behind, and I can see the students that woke up gather around the halls, viewing through the glass. I turned to face her, readying my Keyblade with both hands and spreading my legs to prepare myself.

"You managed to dodge my attacks, but I won't miss again! Triple Firaga!" She raised her Keyblade and conjured three orbs of fire, projecting them at me. I dash towards her to evade the attack and our blades meet.  
"You're the first to ever dodge my Triple Magic techniques, who are you?" She questioned. "Kazu Yuuki," I answered. I cut off our blades and jumped back a few feet. "Thundaga." I thrust my weapon forward, and currents of lightning flowed from my Keyblade and projected themselves to my target. She curled her body into a roll mid-jump and rolled away to evade.  
She snuck up behind me and struck me with her Keyblade, "Is that the uniform for the Darkness Faction? Not only are you wearing it in such an unorganized manner, but is that how your faction operates?" she started to mock our school.

I got back up on feet, "Reflect our nature."  
"What?" She said, confused.  
"This uniform allows us to be free, we are free to wear it, however, we, please. Because it shows our free will. That's what I am told."  
She started laughing uncontrollably, "Hahaha... what? That's what you're told? Then tell me, where is your free will? Because from how you act, it tells me otherwise."  
"..." I remained quiet. I had nothing to say, to be honest, I never questioned it before. I haven't realized it, that I have no free will. My life revolved around listening to others and follow commands from the higher-ups, it never occurred to me that I have no free will of my own. Comparing myself to her, she seems independent, I haven't seen her call for backup yet, she has confidence in her own strength.

"You got nothing to say? Then I'll gladly have the honor of imprisoning you myself." Ayako positioned herself for a strong forward thrust. She dashed past me and whispered, "What are you fighting for?" at that moment, I break down. I fell to my knees and tried to grasp those words. It feels like I should be fighting for something else, yet, whenever I try to recall that, my head starts hurting badly. I grasp my head with both hands, trying to stop the pain, it didn't stop so I stopped trying to recall. Even so, those words lingered in my head and I started feeling things that I have never felt before anger, joy and most importantly, vengeance. It pained me even more. I was confused to why she would ask me such a question, was I so abnormal that she had to help me? Why would she help me? Does she pity me? Questions like those poisoned my thoughts.

"Breaking down already? Well, you have all the time to think of the prison block." She held her weapon against my neck.  
"I'm not going anywhere," I said quietly. I have to get out of here, by any means necessary. I quickly stood up and clashed my Keyblade with hers.  
"I.. let my guard down!" She yelped, surprised.  
"Blizzaga..!" ice starts forming at the tip of my Keyblade, I cut off our connected blades and projected the ice at her. She cast a magic barrier in defense, "Reflect!" the ice reflected back to me, I block it with my Keyblade.  
I was astonished, "Reflect..!?" Reflect is high-class defense magic, it's very difficult to pull off. Someone would have to go through months, maybe years of practice to even master it. If she is able to learn it so quickly, I shouldn't be here. I ran past her and scaled the wall back up into the academy and made a run for the exit.

Of course, getting out wasn't simple. I had to fight my way through the students that were viewing the fight. I managed to make it back to the Darkness Faction territory in one piece. She knew I was going to be there, it was a failure from the start. I had no choice but to run, it was better than to be captured. But for her to even use high-class magic like that? Well, she hasn't mastered it fully, so that's a relief. The rebounding aftershock didn't occur when my attack hit, she was only capable of reflecting it back to me.

I got out of the dense forest. I saw three members of Advanced Squad 1 waiting for me. Before I could utter a word they apprehended me.

"What the-" I tried to speak but they cut me off.  
"Operative Kazu Yuuki, report!" They ordered.  
"Tch.. mission, complete failure.." I said, hanging my head in sorrow.  
"..On orders from the commander: Kazu Yuuki, for failing such an important mission, you'll receive punishment effective immediately!" The leader announced sternly. Punishment, hearing that words bring horrible feelings back. In fact, it makes me tear up upon hearing that. But before I could cry, I felt a strong force hit my stomach. The leader kicked me, hard. "Oof!" I groan in pain.  
"You'll see the commander soon enough." he said.

**END**

**Next Time:**

**Realization**


	3. REALIZATION

**ARC I:**

**Antinomy**

**Chapter III**

_**REALIZATION** _

 

**PREVIOUSLY**

Kazu Yuuki is tasked to assassinate Ayako Tsumura, an elite member of the Light Faction Academy. He failed to complete the mission and now he is facing punishment issued by the high council of the Darkness Faction.

 

It was past midnight, I got thrown into the high council chamber, although only the commander himself was present. The three members of the Advanced Division pinned me down on my back.

"Kazu Yuuki, report," he commanded. His strict voice pierced my ears, as I knew that I would be killed on the spot if I screwed up.  
"..Assassination Mission, objective: assassinate Ayako Tsumura, result failure. The guards found our Stealth Squad sneaking about the academy, they deliberately lowered their guard to lure us out. I got beaten by her, but I managed to escape," I explain in a broken tone.  
"Disappointing. I thought it was best to leave everything to you, given that Emigrace trained you herself. But it looks like we underestimated the Light Faction," he sighed.  
"Commander Yami, what should we do to the failed operative?" one of the Advanced Squad asked.  
"Take him out of my sight. Proceed with the punishment, it's only fair," Commander Yami ordered.

They pulled me up from the ground and saluted to the commander before dragging me out of the room. I didn't have any words to protest, I still had a lot to think about.

Commander Yami, he is the Head of the Darkness Faction Militia. His leadership skills minimized the number of casualties in the first step of the Calamity Project. He ascended into power with his ambitions and positive remarks from the masses of society. His predecessor died in battle before the start of the Calamity Project. Yami took the burden of everyone's expectations onto his back. Eventually succeeding his predecessor and establishing a new era in the Darkness Faction.

I was walking down a long corridor, the floor was white marble the walls and ceiling shared the same material. I've seen the torture room before, it was completely white, with distinct dry blood splatters on the walls and floor. I imagined there was a bloodbath in there last time someone got tortured. I only call it a torture room because that's what it looked like to me at the time, it's more accurate to call it a "punishment room." They opened the locked metal door and tossed me across the floor. They stepped inside and locked the door behind them, ensuring that I won't try to escape. If I did, my life would be in danger.

One of them asked, "Where do we start?" they started to discuss numerous things they could do. It started with if they were going to hurt me physically or mentally, then transitioned into where they were going to hit me. Two of the Advanced Division members in front of me were in their uniform. Untucked dress shirt with the bolo tie and buttoned blazer. There was only one girl among them, but the uniform was the same for both genders.

"The gut is the most generic place to hit," one of them stated.  
"Then do you have anything to suggest, Yuro?" the girl asked. The person named Yuro was on my right of them. He had brown hair with long bangs but combed neatly. He wore a black peacoat over a dark red turtleneck sweater, with black pants and black leather shoes. I would assume he came back from an espionage mission, given his choice of clothing.

"Freeze him?" Yuro blindly suggested.  
"What the!? No! We're not killing him! Do you understand the word 'punishment'?!" the girl yelled.  
"Punishment can exte- oh wait, that's torture." Yuro corrected himself. Is this guy for real?  
"You're an idiot." the girl started immediately.  
"You're only figuring that out know?" the guy said.  
"Cut it out, Dennis, Alexis," Yuro pointed at me and continued, "We need to decide on something quick, we are wasting his time, my time and your time,"

Dennis and Alexis, obviously annoyed by Yuro, aggressively walk over to me to lift me off the ground. They used me as a live punching bag. Each one of their blows hurt, eventually, I started coughing up blood.

"Gah!" I screamed in response to their punches.  
"..." they didn't say a word, they just kept punching me, as if they were imagining they were punching Yuro instead of me. Their angry facial expressions supported that thought, even more, the punches felt like I was being pounded with a twenty-pound weight repeatedly, just by looking at them. They punched not only my gut but my face too. However, not as much as my stomach.

Time passed.. they stopped with the torture and the trio took me out of the room. I was completely bothered. I had a trail of blood from my mouth and bruises on my face. They were carrying out their own conversations while they dragged me back to my dorm room.

Dennis called out, "Yuro, how was your report?"  
"Just gathering information from the Light Faction. It was small, but every bit of info is important," Yuro shrugged.  
"Espionage?" I asked, curious.  
"Uh-huh! Just some juicy info on one or two of the elite members of the Light Faction Academy," he said.  
"Juicy? It better be acceptable for the Calamity Project," Dennis said, doubtful.  
"I think one of them was.. Ayako. Ayako Tsumura!" Yuro said, able to recall. He continued, "Ayako Tsumura, the person Kazu failed to assassinate, is an elite member. She raised to the ranks quickly during her second-year, almost mastering high-level magic."  
"How do you know that much?" I asked. Ayako Tsumura, her words made me question myself for the first time, She is certainly a special person, perhaps it's the power of the Light Faction as a whole. Managing to bring light into the darkness. You could say that she "lit up the path to the truth," or something like that.  
"Well, I was on the espionage mission for quite a long time, I witnessed Kazu's fight with Ayako myself. I learned about her grade from gossiping students hours prior to Kazu's infiltration," he explained.  
"Oh? What high-level magic did she use?" Dennis smirked, still doubting.  
"..Reflect," I said. I hear the two gasp in surprise.  
"Wait, are you for real?" Alexis asked her voice was full of disbelief and surprise.  
"How can a second-year master high-level magic like that?" Dennis said, skeptical.  
"She hasn't mastered it. The aftershock of the rebounded damage didn't occur. From what I saw before I hightailed outta there was Kazu's Blizzaga being reflected back at him. So she hasn't mastered it yet, but it's still troublesome to deal with. Don't you say?" Yuro explained. He's completely right, Ayako was able to "send back to sender" with her Reflect. Underestimating her would only be an insult to her if anything. Her skills are on par with other elite members of the Darkness Faction Academy. I wasn't able to compose myself to fight on even ground. Her words made me froze in place during the fight so many times, it nearly cost me my life. Ever since I haven't felt the same and it hasn't even been a day yet! Do her words have _that_ much of an effect on me?

"What are you fighting for?" her words rang in my head once more. What am I fighting for? I'll be honest, I don't know the answer to that question myself. I never had a reason to fight for something. I only followed orders thoroughly.

"Hahahaha... where is your free will? Because from how you act, it tells me otherwise." her laugh only a few hours ago brings chills down my spine. Just thinking about it, reminds me of her face at that time, unable to hold in what nonsense I had to say to counter her words against me. Come to think of it, I really don't have a free will do I? Since all I have been doing all my life is following orders from the higher-ups like a dog following his or her master's orders. She has a point, a very good point. She acted on her will to attack, she was even told by guards that we were mapping out their academy. It's remarkable.. really. I'm an idiot. Truly.

I snap back into reality after zoning out for a good about of time. I hear someone call out to me, "Hey, Kazu. Wake up," Yuro said.  
".. I'm awake."  
Yuro sighed, "I think you guys hit him too hard."  
"Oh come on, he can take a small beating," Alexis shrugged.

I noticed we were at the front of my dorm room. They let me back on my feet. I was surprised they actually carried me on their backs on the way here. I was still able to walk. I turned to them and waved them goodbye. I confined myself to my room for the entire night, not wishing for a night's rest. All on my mind was Ayako's words, they affected me a lot. It was almost impossible to get them out of my line of thoughts when I realized they were true. I remembered I had my earpiece still on, I tried communicating to Emigrace, "Hey. Emigrace! Are you there?"

"Here. What is it?" she answered back. She's awake? I thought, maybe she's doing some extra paperwork or something. That, or she wanted to check up on me.  
"I have a few questions."  
"Oh no, this isn't about puberty, is it?" she giggled annoyingly.  
I sighed, "Of course not."  
"It's actually something serious? Wow. I am astonished," she said sarcastically, but with my sense of humor, to be correct, my lack of humor didn't pick up on it.  
"You know it's always going to be serious."  
"Well. What is it?" she asked, restlessly.  
"What do you think I'm fighting for?" I ask.

A moment of silence passed, then I received a response from Emigrace.

"You know, I cannot answer that.. at all. You have to find it, yourself," she said, in her more calm tone. That's actually quite mature of her, I thought.  
".. Really?" I said, having doubts.  
"Shouldn't you be the one to decide it for yourself? It's not like I'm in charge of every decision you make," her sincere voice rang into my ears. I knew she was right. I didn't have to ask her and I can't ask her to help me in my pursuit for it. Only I can do it. Only I can grasp my purpose.  
".. Thanks," I quietly said.  
"Take good care of yourself, okay? Now get some rest, come see me in my office tomorrow morning."  
"What for?" I asked. Tomorrow was Sunday, no school on Sundays, so it was puzzling.  
"You'll see," she hummed.

I decided to wait till morning to see what she wanted, I didn't even bother changing. I just went to bed immediately and waited for the wave of sleep to engulf my body.

**...**

"You _idiot_!" Emigrace snapped as soon as I took a seat in her office. I knew where this was heading.  
"You knew how important this mission was to the faction, yet you _failed_? Inexcusable!" she roared. Once she rambles on, you cannot reason with her, at all. She's like a mad cow on a rampage, craving for more cow meat-I think it was a huge mistake to make a metaphor with her and a cow.  
"You had one chance. one! And she was sleeping too! How in the hell did you fuck it up so badly that the commander had to order the Advanced Division to come fetch you like a lost puppy in a park!?" her metaphors were out of this world, but at least they made some sense.  
"She snuck up on me," I simply said.  
"So she snuck up on you," her face was expressionless. I nodded slowly.  
"How?" she asked.  
"She found out our Stealth Divison were sneaking around the academy mapping out the place to her room, so she waited out the following nights waiting for someone to ambush and capture," I explained carefully.  
"So they were found out by the guards.." Emigrace muttered to herself.  
"Eh?" I wondered what she said.  
"Nothing. It wasn't anything important," she brushed it off. She slammed her hand on the desk to get my attention, " _Well_. What do you think of their elite members?"  
Whew.. I thought she was going to ask me if I liked her, she's always been joking about that, I thought.  
"They are certainly powerful," I admitted.  
"So, how did one of our top members got his _ass handed to him_? After all the training I gave you that put you near death? Don't you remember? That whole mountain fiasco that I made you climb for three days? Where did the progress go?" she wondered. Her expression clearly read that she was irritated that I failed. Since I was the only student that she ever trained personally.  
"I was thinking about things."  
"Things like that.. will get you killed on the battlefield," she sighed, then continued, "Then again! You are a teenage boy after all. You were probably gawking at her during your fight. I guess that's understandable."  
"What? Of course not!" I finally yelled out.  
She sighed, "This is why we shouldn't have assigned teenagers going through puberty into the military. Hahaha!"

Well, at least she's back to normal. I prefer this side of her better than her angry side. Much less yelling this way. At least she brings some sort of happiness in my life, it isn't all gloom.

**END**

**NEXT TIME:**

Roughly a month as passed since my assassination mission, from orders from the commander, I had to take a break from school. To recuperate with myself, I guess Emigrace told him what happened. She always knew if I was struggling or troubled. In that time, I devoted it to train with Yuro, from the Advanced Division. Being honest, it was tough. But it was worth it. I made a good acquaintance and improved myself. But now...

"The Light Faction is attacking! Repeat, Light Faction is attacking! All available soldiers out at the front gates of the academy immediately!"

_**PURPOSE** _

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ehh.. since I didn't want to do a recap of what will happen in a time skip next chapter, I preferred to do this. If you think it's not good, I'll get rid of it. If you think it was poorly executed, give me tips on how to improve it. I appreciate it!**


	4. Purpose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A month has passed since Kazu's assassination attempt. As he grows closer to Yuro, he feels as though he's getting closer to discovering the truth about why he is having an overflow of emotions. However, the Light Faction's Enlightenment Academy attacks the Illusion Academy, Kazu seizes this one-in-fifty chance to fight Ayako again.

**ARC I:**

**Antinomy**

**Chapter IV**

_**PURPOSE** _

 

We were sparring today. I had the upper hand against him. Our Keyblades' clashed and sparks flew from each slash, the sound of clashing metal reverberated into my ears each time.

"Here goes..! Sonic Blade!" Yuro pulled his body back pulled his arm away, he pushed his weight forward and thrust his Keyblade in my direction, resulting in a fast dash attack. I managed to dodge away by an inch. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me, he had a determined look on his face. He wanted to beat me today, but I didn't let him.  
"Blizzaga Dash," I pulled my body back and extended my arm back, I put it all into one force and dashed in his direction, cloaking my body in ice in the process. Yuro sidestepped. As expected, Blizzaga Dash is slower than Sonic Dash.

Yuro smirked, "Testing out new moves, eh? But that won't work. Come! Ice Barrage!" he extended his left hand into the sky as if he was trying to grasp something. Sharp crystals of ice start forming around him and they project themselves at me. I managed to block all of them, and I dashed forward to put the pressure on him. I went on the aggressive offensive tactic. Without rest, I swung my Two Become One at him in any way possible. The sparks flew once again as we clashed, people say that this was the ideal way for warriors to understand one another, it was through combat. Through combat, we would be able to understand the other from how we fight. I didn't understand how that works when I first heard it. But I feel like I know now. Those fierce eyes that Yuro has, it shows that he never gives up. That is made apparent in our bout, no matter how many times he missed or how many times I knocked him down, he got back up and faced me one more time till he ran out of stamina. I wonder what he sees in me this way. How much does he understand? Am I getting through to him at all in our fight? Thoughts like those fly through my thoughts as I continued to swing at him. He was gritting his teeth, he was trying desperately to block all of my swings. Alas, it was impossible to block all of them. I can tell that the recoil of trying to parry all of my swings are starting to take their toll on him. I jumped away from him to give him a bit of rest. His arm lowered down to his side, he was gasping for air. His stamina has finally run dry.

"You did well, Yuro," I call out, then I extend my arm towards him, pointing my Two Become One at him. In reaction, he gasped. He knew, he knew that I wouldn't let him off the hook unless I landed one magic attack on him. I could feel my blood pumping. I had no expression on my face, I was almost at my limit, but I still kept my straight face on. "... Finish this," my Keyblade lit a small blue flame at the tip, then it coated my entire Keyblade with the blue fire. I pulled my arm back, spreading my legs. "Inferno Break," I quietly spoke out the command. I pulled myself forward, swing my arm in a horizontal manner, the blue flames flew off my blade and projected themselves towards Yuro. The blue flames resembled the shape of a crescent moon. Yuro took the attack and fell over.

After our training session, our last one before I had to return to school tomorrow, we cleaned up and rested on a nearby bench in the hallway near the training field. Yuro still looked beat up, so I offered him a potion. He accepted it with a smile and drank it. Within seconds, his wounds healed up.

"It's amazing how potions can heal within a matter of seconds," Yuro spoke with wide eyes.  
"The plant used to make it is rumored to have healing properties," I said.  
"Amazing, these will be useful when we fight the Light Faction again," Yuro said in high spirits. Looks like he's revved up again. His positive energy motivated other students to continue trying despite their failures, people looked up to Yuro because of his interactions with the students. I have done nothing like that. I'm only known for my "robotic-like" behavior and my skills, that's it. I haven't really opened up to Yuro yet, if I ask him now, it might bring him down. I wouldn't want that.  
".. Yeah," I agreed with Yuro. ".. I going to the roof for a while," I got up from my seat.  
"Alright, stay safe," he said.

I nodded back at him and started making my way to the roof. During this time, the halls should be empty and the other students would either be in their dorm rooms or be studying.

I finally made my way to the rooftop via a set of stairs. I opened the door and walked in. The rooftop wasn't anything special. It just had ventilation shafts and railing all along the edges. I looked over to the thick forest area near us. Through that forest is the Light Faction Academy.

There, I failed my first mission and suffered the consequences. It was strange. My feelings wavered by my opponents words, which cost me the match. Will I be granted another chance to fight her? Ayako Tsumura, an elite member of the Light Faction Academy.. who is able to use Reflect. The most powerful type of defense magic a Keyblade Wielder can learn. Did she hold back on me? There's no way I could tell, that was only my first battle against someone from the opposing side.

I sighed and focused my gaze on the sun over on the horizon. The sky glowed a deep orange, the setting sun . That vision was ruined, as I look down and see the academy students rushing out through the front gates. I look ahead in the direction of the forest to see why, I notice the Light Faction Academy students running over, Keyblade in hand and ready to wage a war.

"Attention all students of Illusion Academy!" the speakers switch on and my attention switches to that. "The Enlightenment Academy has declared an attack on our Academy. All students to the front of the Academy immediately," the speakers switch off. I am left in awe. I didn't expect such a chance to come as soon as I wished for it. Coincidence? Faith? None of that matters now, what matters now is that now I have another chance to face Ayako again. I've prepared myself for this with Yuro for one month. That may not be enough to overpower her and Reflect, but I must make do with the strength I have at the moment.

I jumped over the railing and landed on the five-meter tall walls of the Illusion Academy. The recoil made me flinch, but I push down the pain and jump off the wall and onto the grassy ground. I take a quick glance around my surroundings. I spot Yuro in the crowd of students preparing to attack the incoming students from the opposing side. I decide to head off on my own to fight my way to Ayako. I know that's reckless of me to do, but a chance like this is rare. I must take it.

I stand on my feet and run ahead. But before I could get far, I hear Emigrace in my headset. "Stop," her voice was commanding and strict. I stopped in my tracks, "Return to the group and await orders," she continued.

I groaned and talked back, "Why?"  
"Because you're a soldier. Disobeying someone of higher status is against your code as a soldier," she said.  
"But..!" I hesitated.  
"Don't disobey us, Operative Kazu Yuuki. Now return to your allies," she ordered.  
"..Understood," I frowned. I curl my open palms into fists in frustration, then returned to the crowd of students to await orders.

There was a commotion among the gathered students, I was away from Yuro so I couldn't talk to him if I could. I didn't want to talk to him anyway, I was frustrated. For the first time, I was frustrated. It was a strange feeling. I didn't feel much of anything, but now, these feelings that are now surging up inside me feel like they're about to consume me whole. Even though they are just a few: happiness, anger and compassion. I felt like a slave to these few emotions that started swelling up. It all started when I met Ayako. Hypothetically speaking, if I were to kill her, maybe these feelings would go away. But if that were to happen, I would return to being empty like before. Things would return to where they were. However, I would lose connection with Yuro if I do that. I don't think Yuro would want that. I let these thoughts plague my mind for the time being.

"You know.. this is our first time ever coming in contact with the Light Faction Academy ever since the first stage of the Calamity Project," one of the male students said. My attention started moving back and forth to their comments. I felt curious to what they think about this.  
"I know. It has been.. what? Ten years since the first stage?" a female student replied.  
"Makes me wonder, will the Light Faction actually put up a fight?" another student commented.  
"It would be no fun if they are just weak fodder."  
"True that, I want some excitement in my life."

Don't underestimate them, I thought, they are more powerful than they seem.

"Isn't that one of the Elite Division members, Kazu Yuuki?" a male student called out to me.  
"Yeah, what about it?" another student questioned.  
"I dunno, it's odd. He seems much different than usual."  
"Didn't you hear? He got jumped during his assassination mission. Apparently, he was tasked to kill one of the Light Faction Academy's Elite, Ayako Tsumura, but he failed," the student said.

Rumors spread quickly, huh? I thought.

I heard Yuro is going to advance soon, but I don't know when. Currently, there are four elite members, including myself. There is only a fifth spot open. Others have been fighting over it, but from the looks of it, Yuro might advance to it first. I'm in the fourth seat, there are meetings, of course, for discussions regarding decisions from the higher-ups. I don't know any of the other seats, well, not entirely, I only know their names. I wasn't required to go to these meetings, to be clear, I was ordered not to attend them at all.

"Attention, students of Darkness Faction Academy!" someone with a tough sounding voice shouted. Almost instantly, all of the students stopped talking and turned to up front, as if they were like robots programmed to move with the use of a command.

"The Light Faction Academy is about to attack at any moment. According to the Overseer on the tower, they are reorganizing their platoon. Now will be the time to strike. There will be one objective: leave no survivors. It's the first time in ten years have we finally engaged in combat with the Light Faction. Do not let this chance escape us. Now that you know the objective.. CHARGE!" the leader turned around to 180 degrees and pointed towards the Light Faction. At that moment, the entire crowd of students rushed forward screaming their war cries. Unbeknownst to the leader, I have my own agenda. I had to locate Ayako Tsumura at all costs. We were away from the Academy by four or five meters, then the group began to split up. At the same time, I caught sight of the Light Faction doing the same thing as us. Within a matter of seconds, we were already engaging in fights with the other. The sun was still in the sky, still setting, the orange tint from the tiny bit of sunlight that was still shining over us started to disappear. The fight has begun, under the cover of dawn. I summoned my Two Become One and ran with it at my side. Two students from the Light Faction blocked my way, "So this guy is one of the 'elites' I have been hearing about? Ha! He doesn't look so tough!" one of them said.

"Don't judge others by their looks," I said to counter.  
"Well, let's see about that," both of them charged at me with their Keyblades. I sidestep out of the way and I hit them with the side of my Keyblade on the temple of their heads, successfully knocking them out. They fell to the ground with a thud. I quickly dashed away to continue my search. Even though we were tasked to kill them, it would take too long. I needed all the time to find Ayako. I wanted a clean battle with a fresh opponent. In order to do that, I must save as much time as possible.  
"It's a Illusion Academy student! Charge at him!" someone commanded, suddenly around five students made a dash towards me.

What a bother, I thought, just when I just saved some time, this had to happen. There are questions that I need to answer, an enemy that I must conquer. My feelings emerged from being in contact with her, even if killing her won't change a thing, I want to at least feel it again!

"Surrounding Attack Technique, Spiral Break."

Physical attacks are divided into different categories depending on the effect. This allows students to create their own attacks that work in different situations on the field. Such as, you would need to use a Surrounding Attack to gain the upper hand in a field of multiple enemies. Trick the enemy into lowering their guard and strike them down. These attacks are handy but take quite a while to master them successfully. For instance, a simple technique, Slashing, may take days or at the most, weeks to master; depending on how difficult it is. These attack techniques are special, as they come to the user's mind. Some attacks can be taught, but they take longer to master as opposed to attacks learned from the mind.

I jump about five meters in the air, hovering for a few seconds before spiraling into the ground with my arm extended with my Keyblade. I didn't intend to hit anyone with the attack, I just needed to confuse them for a bit. I hit the ground, creating a small hole in the ground with my Keyblade sticking out. I grab the handle and swing myself in a 60-degree angle to hit the opponent in front of me. I let go as soon as I made contact, I push him to the ground with my Keyblade now out of the ground. I quickly get up and crouched as the students from the Light Faction attempted to strike, I let them miss and I surprise them with a 360-degree sweep spin to knock them off their feet. Two more students remained. A female student among the three males I defeated attempted to fire a Blizzaga attack at point-blank range. That would inflict heavy damage if it connects. I grab her Keyblade and lifted it into the air, making her misfire the projectile. I stab the side of her stomach, made sure to miss any vital organs. I kicked her to remove my Keyblade from her body. I face the last student, who is a male. He seems to be trembling with fear, seeing how I defeated the other four of his comrades with ease. He couldn't hold his weapon properly, as he was shaking with fear. Which is made even more obvious as he is gritting his teeth and tears streaking down the sides of his face. A part of me wanted to leave him be, but another side of me wanted to make him suffer. I didn't have time to deal with this, but I have to take in the possibility that he might muster up the courage to attack me. I must remove all possibilities. I dashed up to him and jabbed his stomach with my left hand. He groaned in pain and let go of his Keyblade to hold his stomach with both hands. He fell to his knees, hanging his head. He lifted his head up to see my Keyblade as I was preparing a Fire spell. Looking at his wide eyes, he didn't even need to speak a word. I can already perceive what he would say; a whimper of denial or screams of mercy. Either way, I launched the Fire spell at point-blank range. I turned away as he screams in pure agony. His skin peeling off from the blistering heat. A Fire spell has the power of a low-tier Fira spell at that range. Nothing a simple Cura or Curaga could fix. A Potion wouldn't be enough to heal him now. I slowly walk away, a few feet away from the small post the Light Faction made. I saw someone in some high-end clothes, I assume they are a commander. Among the people there, I see Ayako preparing to head out onto the field. I assume because I see her grabbing a Potion or two.

"Ayako Tsumura!" I yell out to grab her attention. It proves to be successful as she stares at me with an angry look.  
"You again?" she says in disgust as she walks over to me with her Keyblade in hand. Her Keyblade gives off an aura of light, with a huge emphasis on white on the design aspect.  
"I fought my way over here to answer that question one month ago," I readied my weapon.  
"Let me see if I can recall.. 'where is your free will,' right?" she said, and I nod in response.  
"My objective was to kill the students, but I disobeyed that so I can fight you with no worries. All in order to fight the one girl who made my troublesome emotions emerge from within," I made eye contact with her, proving my determination.  
"You proved that you are capable of free will. But I wonder, how long will it last? Because to me, you're just a dog who finally removed his leash," she smiles mockingly.  
".. You better prepare yourself now, Tsumura. Because I'm not leaving without your head," I openly threaten her.  
"Will you live up to those words, I wonder?" she mischievously smiles and moves into a fighting stance, spreading her legs and holding her weapon firmly at her side.

"You're one of the few people on par with my abilities, I'll break you and your words!" I yell and dash towards her to strike first. She parried my attack and knocked me back a few feet. She extended her arm in my direction, her pose seems to intend the preparation of a magic attack. "Triple Firaga!" she yelled. My predictions were correct, the three orbs of fire circled the tip of her Keyblade and finally projected themselves at me. I jump in her direction, curling my body into a ball and rolling a few feet to avoid her attack. But the Firaga orbs circled around and hit me in the back. I flinch from the burning fire that scorched my back. It was as if I was walking on burning coal during training, falling over and burning my back. I didn't anticipate that Triple Firaga would have homing properties to them. That was my mistake and my mistake alone. These mistakes would eventually kill me.

"What's wrong? Done already? I thought you were going to slice my head off. I had high hopes for you, but I am severely disappointed," she mocks me with a smile.

I have to think of a plan fast. I was too reckless on the field. I used up some of my valuable resources trying to take down the fodder. Now that I am up against the main course, I can't muster my strength up. I didn't have enough time to recover from training, now this. I sprung headfirst without a plan. Just the urge for settling the score with this girl and lock away my useless emotions. "I'm.. just getting started," my tone was hoarse. I get up from the ground and spread my feet a bit to level myself. I reach into the pocket of my blazer and take out a small bottle. I take out the cork that sealed the contents and drank the liquid. At that moment, the effects of the healing potion took effect, the pain from the blistering fire disappeared and I felt better. The reconstruction of my cells formed my skin back together in a second.

"Now then, I'm back up to full stamina. Time for me to go all out, Tsumura," I point my weapon towards her.  
"Honestly, you're an idiot. Coming in without a plan.. well, I'll let it slide, for now, show me what the Darkness Faction offers, pawn!" she continues to mock me.

At least learn my name, I thought.

"Thundaga Shot," I spread my feet back and I grab the handle of my weapon with both hands. A huge orb of around three meters formed at the tip of my Keyblade. A yellow orb of crackling electricity. I swung my Keyblade in an act of throwing a ball, to launch the projectile at her. Upon contact, a cloud of smoke emerged around us, as soon as that happened, I jumped into the air so I can get a view from above. I spread my body open to hover for a bit. A gust of wind appeared from the center of the cloud and blew all of it away. As expected, Ayako would blow it away.

"A distraction..!" she gasped.  
"Aerial Attack Technique, Diving Slash," I suspend the force that kept me in the air and prepares to dive with my arm pulled back, preparing for a slash. I knock her back a few inches with the attack. Her face screaming with surprise from my sudden attack. I stand up and swung my Two Become One at her repeatedly. As if on instinct, she cast a weak Reflect shield in front of her. I could tell it was weak because my weapon wasn't being reflected back to me and she could use the shield repeatedly. All I could do is put the pressure on her and hope for the shield to break. Yuro was powerless when I used this strategy. Theoretically, it can work on her. But I held off it thinking she might use a normal Reflect. But that wouldn't be enough to stop me. So she used a weak Reflect that she can consciously use without tiring out. This would me she is buying time for herself to think of a counter to this strategy. Then she can initiate that surprise attack while I'm busy bashing away at her shield like a fool. Coming to that conclusion, I back away from her.

"..." a few seconds of silence pass. She was intently staring at me, thinking that I'll restart my onslaught if she drops the Reflect. "What are you doing?" she asks. I stand there dumbfounded for a second.  
"Huh?"  
"What are you doing?" she repeats.  
"What do you mean?" I ask.  
"I don't understand your intention of coming her just to fight me. It has to something more than 'settling the score', it's more than that." Her statement was spot on.

"Yeah. It's more than a simple competition," I said. I have no clear understanding of myself, I'm constantly been in a conflict with myself ever since. I have no idea what I am doing with my life. All I have been doing up to an hour ago was obeying orders. Now that I have disobeyed those orders, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm simply a slave with no master. Plus, with these emotions surging up from me all of sudden, it's hard to express myself anymore. hotheaded, sulky, happiness, dread, cold and doubt; these emotions reflect my actions. I feel like my personality is all over the place, I don't feel like myself. At one instance, I'm happy, in another, I brimming with irritation, then doubting myself and my those around me and so forth. There is one person who lit up this path for me. She lit the path that'll bring me to interact with others. Ayako Tsumura, the woman who filled a hole in my cold, empty heart that lacked warm substance.

"I'm here to fulfill my curiosity," I continued. I want to learn more about myself, I want to walk down this new road that has been laid out for me. I take a step forward, "because the woman who made me lust for this fulfillment of self is right in front of me."

"..." she stood there in astonishment. She didn't expect this. "..I did..?" she asks. I nod, "Yeah. Because of you, my emotions are spiraling all over the place. Never before have I ever felt this way. Being unable to express them properly yet, knowing they exist is the most annoying thing. I can't even think straight. I've been acting on impulse ever since I'm all over the place. There is no exact definition of me. It's exactly as you say, I am a dog who just got his leash released. I'm a stray with no understanding of anything. That's why I came her, seeking for answers."

My prior thinking was to kill her in an attempt to push these emotions back down. But putting all the events that happened so far in my otherwise uneventful student-soldier training academy life, this change started because of her. Killing her won't make a difference, either is sparing her. All I have to do is accept it and walk down this new, fresh road that paved over the old, rocky one.

She smiles, "Answers? I'm honored to have you say that, now we can fight on equal ground now."

I only realized my problems by talking to her through fighting. If that's the case, then by experience I'll uncover those truths one by one. But one thing I'm still uncertain about, how can she change me? How did I come to this conclusion just from fighting her? Is it through understanding?

I zoned out for a bit, thinking too deep into this topic.

"Kazu Yuuki, I'll acknowledge you," she said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Alright.. here I go," both of us dash at the same time, knocking each other back and forth with the force of our blades. We were standing on equal ground at this point, we are rivals who have come to understand the other. That may be the case for her, but I don't know a thing about her, and just looking at her strength peaks my curiosity. I knew nothing about her, her past, what drives her, or who she really is. All the more I think about it, makes me want to know. For some reason, she made my emotions swell up with her words, I want to know how she did it, and now I want to know more about her. We are frenemies, slowly becoming frenemies.

In the background of the night sky and the moon that illuminated the ground we stand on, I see my comrades, fighting against Ayako's comrades. The essence of battle, the exhilaration of fighting. I couldn't bring myself to even kill her if I got the chance because I want to know more about her.

I pulled my arm back, flipping my Keyblade so I'm wielding it backhanded. I lock my sight on Ayako, and she does the same. "Zantetsuken," we dash at blinding speed, to the onlooker of the move, it would seem like we vanished out of thin air, but in reality, we moved at an impossible speed for a single slash. It's a strong move used to finish off opponents in one hit, meant as a finishing attack. At the end of the dash, we reappear with our arms extended towards the sky. Our pose suggests that we were stricken. Not even a second after we reappear, the grass in our path disintegrates and leaves the dirt, then I start feeling a sharp pain in the side of my stomach. I can only assume our attacks made contact. I fall to the ground in pain. I steal a glance behind me and see Ayako is on her knees as well.

"... Because I want to be a person," I say to myself as I continue my previous trail of thoughts.

The pain from the attack made me immobile, my breathing became thin and I felt like some force was restricting my respiratory system. I look around, and I see my acquaintance, Yuro calls out to me. I look all around me, some casualties on both sides have occurred... but that's too be expected, I guess.

Yuro grabbed me and pulled my arm around his shoulders and he helped me stand on my feet. I steal a glance at Ayako, and I see a boy do the same.

"Attention, students of Enlightenment Academy!" a woman yelled into a microphone, which reverberated the sound throughout the battlefield. In an instant, the fighting stopped.  
"A battle was well fought today. All students, retreat back to the Light Faction and take all injured students. The dead will be left behind to lighten the load."

I can only assume that she must be the Light Faction's Commander. Yuro dragged me all the way back to the academy, and I see the Enlightment Academy students run past me carrying their comrades on their backs, ignoring the rest of us and ran back to their camp.

"Kazu Yuuki," Emigrace called out to me through my earpiece.  
"..What..?" I groan.  
"Report to my office afterward."  
"..Understood."

We finally regrouped with the remaining students of the academy. It seems we had thirty-six deaths and one-hundred-one injured, I was one of the injured. I healed myself with a Curaga spell. It has the same effect as a Potion but is more effective with healing. However, it drains your entire mana supply and you have to wait for it to recharge. Because of that, the Cure spell chain is only used in emergency situations, as magic is highly valued for their versatile use in battle and ranged attacks.

I have Yuro let go of me, and the day after, I reported to Emigrace's office.

I lowered myself into the cushioned chair, after waiting for about fifty seconds, she finally began talking.

"Regarding the battle from yesterday.." she began but stopped dead in her tracks as she flipped through some of the papers she was holding, and looked at me with a shocked expression which was a bit funny. She continued, "... you injured eight students and one of them was Ayako Tsumura, the target objective from your failed assassination mission one month back."  
I nod sharply, "Well, what about it?"  
"There are a couple things wrong here. Firstly, only eight students? I thought you were tasked to kill them, not injure them, am I wrong?" she tilted her head in confusion.  
"No, you're not wrong. I just wanted to fight Ayako, but those seven got in my way, so I did my best to save time. Resulting in me knocking them out," I try to explain carefully, but the careless factor of what occurred during those events remained evident in my voice.  
"I'm not being paid enough to add your actions in your missions onto my workload. This isn't in my jurisdiction," she slammed the papers on her desk and frowned at me.

She seems very stressed today, from her ruffled suit and messy hair, she hasn't been home in days, maybe even weeks. Out of my own selfish desire, I went to fight Ayako, which caused this mess. Normally she would "half-ass" the work if I did the mission correctly. Since I disobeyed orders and acted according to what I wanted to do, she's stressing over it. I can't blame her since it's her responsibility for what I do and what happens to me.

"But seriously, why are you so hung up on this Ayako girl? What did she do that made you want to fight her so badly? Including on the warfield, what is up with you lately!?" she finally snapped from stress.  
"Ehhh.. I wouldn't say anything is out of the ordinary today," I lied, of course.

Something was definitely wrong, for the sake of Emigrace's stress load. I didn't want her to worry about it anytime soon.

"Are you mocking me?" she glared.  
"Mocking? How?" I asked.

I guess she saw through my obvious lie. Well, I wasn't the best liar anyway.

She sighed, "You know, you can't lie your way outta this that easily. We aren't idiots here."  
"I'm just confused, is all," I vaguely explain.

I hoped that I can be as vague as possible to annoy her to the point that she wouldn't want to continue. Which would lead her to change the topic? I guess this shows how much I wanted to avoid the subject.

"Confused? About what?" she persisted.  
"... About myself. Now, are we done here? I want to go back to the previous topic if possible. I feel uncomfortable discussing this."

I might have jumped the gun by saying it was uncomfortable.

"Alright. I don't have enough tolerance to start interrogating you. There are other people that are fit for that job anyway," she leaned back in her chair.  
A tough sounding voice came from the direction of the door, "Emigrace. It's me, Ace."  
"Come on in! That was perfect timing, by the way, I was getting tired dealing with him today... haha."

Her fake laugh was so obvious it hurts.

I looked at me, and a man of average build stepped into the office. He had a neat suit on, with highly combed hair. I assumed he just came from a council meeting if the Head of Mission Management came in dressed like that.

"Oh. By 'him' you, of course, mean our school's trained dog. My sorry to have kept you waiting, Emigrace and Operative Yuuki."

A dog? At least show some more respect, I'm at least capable of knowing that much.

".. Not at all," I bitterly said.  
"Well then, I heard he has been doing poorly as of late. More recently, the small battle from yesterday. But one thing puzzles me: why did the Light Faction advance and challenge us directly?" he held a finger up to his chin and gazed up at the ceiling.  
"What do you mean?" Emigrace asked.

Given the respectful tone from her, Ace must be higher up the ranks.

"The Light Faction has been relatively passive. This is very strange. You do know the concept of Yin and Yang, correct?" Ace asked.  
"That old thing? A little bit."  
"Yin is normally passive and Yang is active. Yin is the white dot traveling within the dark. Yang is the dark dot traveling in the white. Yin is supposedly the Light Faction according to beliefs from our ancestors. But this is increasingly strange. lately, the Light Faction has been more active than us. Is it possible that the Yin and Yang, according to religious belief, to change places?" Ace was practically mumbling to himself at this point. Tapping his foot and gripping the tip of his chin to be lost in deep thought.  
"What do you mean... by Yin and Yang?" I asked, curious.  
"Oh. Our ancestors had a belief that of Yin and Yang. A belief on how they are interconnected or even interrelated, despite being the opposite. That nothing is absolute over the other, everything is in peace and harmony. Those were the philosophical teachings from our ancestors. Believing that we needed to be separated, our ancestors split up and eventually erected the Darkness which is Yang, the other erected the Light, Yin. We were supposed to be in peace and harmony with the other. But lately, we have been putting in all our efforts in disrupting that balance and now the Light Faction is now on the active while we remained on standby. It's almost as if the roles have switched. Funny, ain't it?" he smiled.

Have the roles switched? True, that's rather strange. But what's even more out of the ordinary is that we are defying the lesson taught to us by our ancestors.

"No respect for the dead, I see," I said out loud.  
"Hahaha.. I suppose. Well, what do you think Emigrace?" Ace turned to Emigrace, who had her arms crossed the entire time.  
"I agree that it's rather strange. I guess this means that the Light Faction is growing stronger, possibly stronger than our top members. Which is quite bad," Emigrace glared at me, as if I kicked her dog right in front of her."Yes?" I answered back in a monotone voice.  
"I'd like you to be the leader of a group mission that will be scheduled for the following week, starting tomorrow. Your team will be the entire elite squad you had yet to meet," he said and moved his arm in the direction of the door, "Come in, everyone."

Five students walked, almost instantly, as if Ace told them to wait there till he called them in.

"The four current seats of the Elite Division in the academy have gathered. First, the girl with the uninterested expression, Scarlet Rose. Second, a happy-go-lucky girl, Xiu Li. Third, a girl with a glaring stare that would be enough to send a very soft, timid guy in tears, Selena Rose, the younger sister of Scarlet Rose. Fourth, the truant of the group with social problems, Kazu Yuuki. Finally, the fifth person is the positive, caring student that accepts himself as a dimwit, Yuro Lakewood. Although he isn't one of the elites yet, I made a special offer: if he can pass this mission on an equal level with his peers here, he can advance," he introduces them.

'Isn't that.. out of your job jurisdiction?' I wanted to say that, but I kept it to myself and went along. Looking at the rest of the group that just walked in, they seem to be insulted by the way Ace introduced them. It was understandable, to say the least.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Kazu Yuuki," I said, trying to be welcoming.  
"Nice seeing you here, Kazu. At least there is someone here I know that doesn't totally hate my guts! Hahahaha..." his nervous laughter echoes throughout the room as he turns to Selena, who gives him a menacing glare that made him yelp in terror.  
"Nice of them to be conveniently there when you need to come out," I looked at Ace, who laughed in response to my empty-handed comment.

Although, Yuro is the only one I actually know in the group. That wouldn't be the case if I attempted to be social in the academy, but due to orders from the high brass and Emigrace herself, that wasn't possible until recently. In fact, I can feel Emigrace's gaze on me, to which I can assume a face of pure irritation seeing that I made friends with someone which is in violation of my agreement with her.

I turn around to face her, and sure enough, I was correct. She quickly changes her expression to a faked smile and says, "Kazu, when did you meet Mr. Lakewood?" judging from her tone, she is trying her hardest trying not to snap at me on the spot for the second time today.

"Oh! Let me answer that, Ms! I was his training partner during his one month of recuperation," Yuro answers quickly like an excited little boy who just got called on by the teacher for the first time in class.

My first thought: are you an idiot?  
Which, from my punishment one month ago, I'd already confirmed that. But his dimwitted behavior seems to be stuck in my first impression on him. While he is quite the role model for the students out there in this academy to "not give up" isn't in his moral code. He even motivates struggling students to improve, even going as far as to train with them and helping them improve their weak points. He may be dimwitted, but there is more to him that meets the eye.

"What did we say about not making unnecessary acquaintances?" her voice gave off a malicious tone, most likely towards me and Yuro.  
"'We?'" I questioned.  
"She means the brass and herself," Ace confirmed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group stood in awkward silence as Emigrace was ready to kill me with her bare hands, as Yuro unintentionally added more stress on the now one-hundred-pound weight that sits on her shoulders because of me.

Still, I wonder what will become of me in the upcoming days. I still need answers, I guess those will be slowly be revealed as I continue my days. Well, only time will tell.

**END**

**NEXT TIME:**

_**COMMUNICATION** _


	5. Communication

**ARC I:**

**Antinomy**

**Chapter V**

_**COMMUNICATION** _

The sun was setting soon, but the sunlight wasn't shining over us like a blanket from god himself, no, it was already cloudy when we arrived in this area. The Illusion Academy was surrounded by mountains, this is the first time we attempted to embark on huge missions like these since the Heartless in this area would be too tough for other students. But due to the sudden improvement in almost every student in the academy, thanks to Yuro's inspirational presence, we were able to finally hunt Heartless here as a new mission location. The mountaintops have huge forests lining all over, there were small caves that often led into dead ends here and there, but these spots can be used for recon and the cliffs are an ideal spying location on the academy if one would need a bird's eye view of the structure of the entire thing. Luckily, there were no signs of battle on these mountains from the look of it, so I don't think the Light Faction actually scaled these mountains before, even if they did, the Heartless would catch them by surprise.  
We didn't know anything about each other, yet we had to survive this ridiculous mission set up by Ace. I call it ridiculous because it's meaningless to me. But I suppose it was important enough for the Calamity Project preparation steps to issue. From what Ace told me, it was to build a bond with people we would work together within the Calamity Project's final phase. An exercise not only fitted to create relationships with people we are not familiar with, but also to gather materials from unknown Heartless to use in expendable creation. The "bonding with other squad members" was just an excuse for us to go on a hunting mission. Although it would allow me to at least open up to a few of them, so I guess it is important. Sheesh, I just said it was an excuse, now I think it's important, talk about hypocrisy.

"Hey guys," whispered Yuro, "look over there," he pointed to a huge clearing in the forest, which was just a few meters away.  
"What about it?" Selena asked, looking over to Yuro.  
"Want to head over there? To rest?" Yuro suggested.

We all looked at each other and nodded back to Yuro. In response, all he did was fist-pump with a happy look on his face. We that settled, we slowly made our way to the clearing, trying not to make as much noise as possible.  
Why? Simply, the Heartless in this area seems to have a higher aggregation rate than the ones we previously encountered. It's almost impossible to get the upper hand on these guys, and as a result, tougher battles with more diligent enemies. I'll admit, it made battles more interesting and we will have to cooperate at some point.  
As we were about to enter the clearing, I stopped dead in my tracks, looking across from us and scanning the wide clearing, there seem to be small boulders scattered around the area, and what seems to be a large black vortex swirling in the center. All of it put up red flags in my mind. I felt the cold sweat run down my forehead, and the weight of the backpacks we all brought just for food, yeah, food only. They expected us to be real soldiers and camp out in a ditch or something. But that's beside the point, red flags rose in my mind, telling me not to go there. It was painfully obvious that it was a bad place to go in. My teammates caught wind of my sudden stop, they looked at me in confusion.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Yuro asked.  
"... I don't think we should go in there," I say, looking down to my feet in bewilderment.  
"I don't see a problem with it," Selena tonelessly said.  
"But~, there is a strange vortex in the center, Maybe that's why Kazu's scared," Xiu held a finger up to her lip and smiled in a carefree tone.  
"Not really panicked.. but yes. I'm a bit worried that something bad will happen if we walk into that clearing," I say, finally gaining my composure.  
"Do you doubt our abilities?" Scarlet asked, crossing her arms.  
"Huh?" I look at her, dumbfounded.  
"Don't doubt our abilities, even if you haven't seen us fight a boss Heartless yet, we are in the Elite Division for a reason." she glared into my eyes as if looking through my soul.

Just from looking into her eyes, I can sense that she is serious about this, but knowing that we aren't coordinated at all, still worries me. I don't think we can win based on pure strength at all, we need to have a strategy for whatever is waiting in that clearing. I glance to my teammates, it seems like they trust in whatever strength they have. Honestly, we are such idiots for believing in our skills alone without a plan. I guess that's what makes us kids.

I look back to Scarlet and give her a sharp nod, "Alright. But we need to form a plan at least."  
She shook her head in denial, "We don't have time for that."  
"Huh? Of course, we have time for that. It's not like the Heartless is going to disappear on us," I argue.  
"I second this, we need a plan. Because I don't want to wind up as swiss cheese during the fight," Yuro concurred.  
"I'm siding with my sister on this one. Yuuki, I already have faith in mine and my sister's strength, we don't need a plan," Selena said in a cold tone.  
"Are you guys for real? Just because you have seen your sister in battle, doesn't mean we have! At least, not fighting a boss Heartless, but still...!" Yuro stumbled on his words.  
"So what? You fought Yuuki yourself, haven't you?! And you fought me before, and I don't see a problem! The only person that doesn't know our strength is Mr. Robot here!" Selena pointed at me, with her eyes brimming with disgust.  
"True. But I wish to cover all potential problems in our formation and think about a plan," I continue to suggest, seeing as raising my voice will make more problems.  
"We don't need a plan!" Selena continued to protest like a child who doesn't get their way.  
"We need a plan!" Yuro protests in a similar way.  
I turn to Xiu, who is strangely passive about the entire situation. She noticed me staring at her, I made a face that can be easily read as, "what are you doing?" and her reaction was along the lines of: "eh?! n-nothing really..!" seeing as she was playing with her fingers and looking down. I decided to speak up, "Xiu? Your opinion?" I asked.  
"U-um.. not really. I just don't want to rile anyone up any further. Because you know, Yuro and Selena often get into arguments all the time. And I don't want to intervene since I don't want to get swept up in the storm. Even Selena's older sister knows this," Xiu answered and pointed to Scarlet, who is scratching her cheek and not engaging in the shouting battle Yuro and Selena were having.  
"... I see... In any case, let's just stop this pointless bickering and calm down," I try to assess the situation by stepping in between them.  
"Move it!" both of them yelled in unison, shoving me out of the way and carrying on with their argument.  
I stumbled a bit but kept my balance and center of gravity so I wouldn't fall over.  
"I don't think they're going to stop anytime soon," I sighed heavily. I looked at the others who weren't arguing and they nodded in agreement.

After a minute or two, we finally settled down. But since they wanted to go head first into battle, and Xiu didn't want to pick sides. Me and Yuro, clearly not wanting to pick another yelling battle with them, we went in without a plan. Which... ended up with us in this huge mess. But that's to be expected since not everything can go your way sometimes.

* * *

Boom, and just like that, the entire situation changed.  
"Shit! it's regenerating!" Scarlet shouted out.  
The Heartless that stood before us had regeneration properties. It's yellow eyes glowing brightly in the otherwise dark, rainy night. It was another titanic Heartless, with claw-like fingers, a slim body, and pointed feet. Its skin was jet black. Its face was that resembling the face of a dog, it looked like a godly figure that people who were unaccustomed to today's culture would worship.

"Don't just stand there! Take 'em out!" Yuro yelled, charging in for an attack on its ankles. He was aiming to knock it down to its knees.  
It fell down on its knees as Yuro struck both of its ankles with multiple slashes. We all backed away from it, around ten feet away, assuming it'll counterattack as soon as we get close to it.  
"Thundaga!" Selena and Scarlet shouted, pointing their Keyblades into the air, casting a lightning spell to strike the boss Heartless. Two individual lightning strikes come down from the sky and strike the enemy.  
"Raaaaarrrrrrr!" it writhes in pain as its entire body jolts up from the attack.  
We finally had it pinned down thanks to Yuro slashing at its ankles, now we were able to strike it with our magic.  
"Now! While its regenerating, attack with everything you got!" I yell, swinging my Two Become One in a horizontal line, creating an arc of fire and projecting it at the head while it's down.  
A cloud of smoke clouded my field of vision as it hit, but the Heartless roared in anger in response to the attack, I knew it wasn't over yet.  
We still didn't have any sort of formation, but we were so close to beating the beast. We finally turned the tables from a death trap of a battle. Thanks to Yuro, we were able to launch consecutive attacks at the enemy, but we cannot afford to let our guard down. I whipped up a quick Aero spell to expel the smoke clouds to deal more hits to ensure victory.

This was our reckless survival battle, a battle that would cost us our lives because of our own incompetence, such actions wouldn't be allowed on a real battlefield. I'm always been told to get the job done and go home, I never had any consideration for my teammates, because the hunting missions I was sent on with a team were so small, it was nothing on this magnitude. Here, I must build trust in each and every one of them, even if it's small, it's enough to get through the mission. If any of the higher-ups were here, I would be scolded on the spot.

Before I could process the situation around me, Yuro yelled at me, telling me to stop, I did as told and stopped in my tracks. I look at him in confusion, he points up in the air. Xiu jumped a good fifteen feet into the air, holding her Keyblade to her side, what was she aiming for? Is it...!?  
I gasp in realization, and looked at the Heartless, lines of smoke was apparent on the back of it. She was aiming for the core, the centerpiece of the Heartless. She's betting everything on raw luck. Once I reached that conclusion, I, of course, screamed.  
"Diving Attack Technique, Swan Descend!" Xiu screamed, descending down with her arm extended.  
She landed on the back of the Heartless, stabbing it from the pressure and force of gravity that aided in her descend to the ground. The Heartless wailed in pain.

"Is she aiming for the center? Is she for certain that'll kill it?" I said, with my mouth open in surprise.  
Scarlet laughed, "Hahaha... of course, we had a few theories to support this."  
"When did you...?" I turned to Scarlet.  
"We were suggesting it to her when you were busy with the smoke machine display. We noticed there seems to be a glowing pattern as it regenerates, a pink highlight that covers the entire body as it heals. This pink highlight expands from the center of the Heartless, and it covers the entire body and repeats until the healing is complete. This boss Heartless has a humanoid body shape, so figuring out the center wasn't that tough, " she explained in a dramatic tone, "reaching that conclusion, Yuuki, we intend for her to be our last resort!"  
"You're an idiot," was my initial response, but I decide to hold my tongue.

"...! Firaga!" Xiu yelled in desperation, casting a spell while her Keyblade was still impelled into the Heartless. From where she was standing, a fire erupted from the wound her Keyblade made with the strike. I could smell the smoke from here as it invaded my nasal system and burnt the inside of my nose. The horrid smell made me cover my nose with my left hand.

Is this the bond I missed while I was in my room? I ask myself. I look at the others behind me, they're cheering with happy expressions, the burnt marks on their faces and uniforms were apparent. Despite that, they cheered with their eyes filled with trust. They trusted that Xiu will get the job done, but what am I doing? I don't know a thing about them, except Yuro. I'm just a stranger to them. No motivation, no drive, and no trust. The only thing I can do is cheer like the rest.

"Xiu! Do it!" I cupped my hands and screamed. Xiu heard me, she nodded and stood up.  
She dragged her weapon across the skin and out of the shoulder blade of the Heartless' body. She looked at us in anticipation, she expected us to finish it, I could tell by her sudden serious expression in her eyes.  
"Yuuki! Rose sisters! Lakewood!" she yelled out dramatically.  
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Selena responded confidently and jumped on the body of the Heartless along with her sister, leaving me and Yuro in confusion.  
They held out their hands to us, "Aren't you coming with us?" they wholeheartedly welcomed.  
"..." Yuro and I nodded to each other and grabbed onto their hands and supported us in getting on the back of the Heartless.  
"Now do you see? We didn't need a plan... that argument before was pointless," Selena said, looking at me and Yuro.  
"...I suppose," I hung my head.  
"Why are you so down? We supposed to be a team, right?" Scarlet said to reassure me, her welcoming tone struck me like an arrow to the chest. For some reason, it was satisfying to hear.  
"... You accept us?" I asked. I referred to both me and Yuro, as we were unsure. Since to them, we must be strangers intruding on their territory.  
"Of course, we do," Scarlet smiled, her soft voice and tone piercing me.  
I nod sharply in response, "Let's finish it up, then."

We summon our Keyblades again and stab the Heartless' jet black skin. From the cracks that we made with our weapons, clouds of dark smoke begin to rise from the body. We run across the back, dragging our weapons through its skin. Jumping off it, Xiu was waiting on the other side to finish the job.

"Haah!" she screamed, slashing it multiple times at blinding speed. We landed on the ground behind her, standing up and looking back.

The Heartless began to struggle, as Xiu deals the last strike, the body of the Heartless explodes into a cloud of black smoke. It cleared up almost instantly as if someone placed a fan in the clearing to blow it away as soon as we defeated it. In the center of the clearing, the materials it dropped appeared. I walked over to grab them; twenty Dark Shards, one unidentifiable material which appeared to be colored in cobalt blue, and five Dark Gems.

I relay the material count to Emigrace over my earpiece, I switch the microphone off and return to the group waiting at a nearby boulder.

"Good work," I say to them.  
"That's all you have to say? Despite the traces of doubt, you had for us back there?" Selena said, seemingly annoyed.  
"That's right. I'm sorry for doubting your strength. I'm just not used to interacting with others yet."  
"Oh, that's completely fine," Xiu said, forgivingly.  
"It is?" I said, clearly taken aback.  
"Yeah. You're pretty infamous for being socially awkward at school anyway. Also, I heard from Selena that you never show up to the meetings, so it's understandable that you're hopeless in communication," Yuro said, laid back as usual.  
"The way you say it makes him seem like a lost pup," Selena said in a low tone.  
"It's fine. Yuro isn't too far off," I said, scratching the back of my head.  
So I lacked in communication, huh? I thought. Maybe what I was missing from my life was interaction with others, and I haven't really felt like a person before. But now that I'm talking to them, I'm having fun spending time with them like this, it's completely different than the times I would do solo missions. It started because of Ayako because I interacted with her in my first mission into the Enlightenment Academy in the Light Faction, I wasn't really a person, just a "robot who does as he is told," as others describe me. Because of my interactions, my emotions are swelling up inside me, now I'm a mess of conflicting emotions and act like completely different people. It's confusing and frustrating, honestly. Since I have a lack of knowledge in this field so I can't go far in depth with this, only as far as the lessons I'm taught in class and ones from Emigrace herself. Even from my observations as a bystander, I can tell a few things about everyone I meet after a few days or hours of meeting them. Yuro, a happy-go-lucky idiot whose morals motivate others to succeed. Selena, a serious individual who is quite reckless. Scarlet, a more matured version of Selena, but is more on the happy side of things. Xiu, a clumsy girl who doesn't hold back when she needs to do what she needs to do to aid in the victory of her friends. This group is certainly a bunch of interesting people, clearly with their own negatives and positives. My observations might not be on point, but I have been told many times by Emigrace that there is more to a person than what they portray themselves as. I may not know much about myself, but I feel like I'm welcomed in this strange group of people who are so different from me. Well, hopefully, I'm not too influenced by them like others in fictional novels.  
I felt something cold drop down my shirt. I rubbed the back of my blazer in reaction, then feeling more drops, on the top of my head, I look up into the cloudy sky. The moon wasn't in sight anymore, it was completely covered up by the dark gray clouds as the cold downpour of rain doused us.

"...We should find shelter, quick," I suggested, shivering.

We all nod in agreement and dash back into the woods and trail to a nearby cave in the mountains.  
The dirty water splashed beneath our feet as we ran through the wood, seeking shelter from the sudden downpour. We were already tired from the long day of hunting, and we have to deal with this. I suppose it's a trail of endurance that we must face as soldiers. To be correct, student-soldiers.  
I could hear the ragged breath of my teammates as we desperately ran through the leaves of the surrounding wildlife. Our shoes weren't made for such terrain, so naturally, we had a few slip and fall face-first into the muddy dirt, but we stood back up as much as we had to.  
The sound of thunder echoes in the distance, illuminating the sky.  
"..!" Scarlet yelped in panic.  
We were cold, tired, and most of all, hungry. It really is a tough time for soldiers on a hunting mission. We had to bear with it, a pain we didn't ever want to experience. But that was expected to happen eventually when we enrolled into this school.

We finally manage to get out of the forest, there was a small cave ahead of us, with the rain coming down harder on us. We have no choice but to duck in there and rest up.

Once we settled in, we gathered around a single oil lantern for warmth. Despite our wishes for warmth, it would never come from an oil lamp. So we sat there, in cold silence. A few stomachs growling for food, I was about to open my mouth to suggest we start eating, but Selena opens hers first, "Hey," Selena called out, breaking the silence.

"What?" Yuro asked, there is a noticeable shake in his voice.  
"What are we doing?" she asked, curling herself in a ball on the ground.  
"Good question. I don't have an answer to that," I replied silently.  
"Do you think we should talk about a few things to break this gloomy tone?" Xiu suggested.  
"Like?" Scarlet wondered, leaning in forward, interested.  
"So anyone here has any love interests?" Xiu mischievously asked.  
At that moment, I knew we wouldn't be eating for a long time.  
"Don't put such forceful topics into this awkward situation!" Selena protested in an angry tone.  
This whole conversation is growing increasingly awkward by the minute, I thought. I should just leave them be and spectate. This will be a learning experience for me, a chance to see everyone in their relaxed state. A tad bit earlier than expected, but no complaints.  
"You wanted someone to break the ice, and now you're protesting? Talk about hard to please!" Xiu folded her arms and pouted.  
"There are other ways to 'break the ice' your method was just uncomfortable!" Selena continued to resist.  
"Is it because my sister has someone she likes?" Scarlet pressed the tip of her bottom lip with her index finger and narrowed her eyes on Selena.

This must be some form of "girl talk" as Emigrace calls it. In these conversations, girls would talk about the most random things and get fussy about sensitive topics, in this case, someone's love life. I don't even want to get myself wrapped up in this nonsense, but it does provide some sort of insight on who these people are. At one point, they're flat as a brick, but in another, they're booming with energy to the point of it being difficult to keep track of their true colors. People are amazing life forms.

"D-don't be silly, big sis!" Selena stuttered, a flustered look on her face as she waved both of her hands in front of her.  
"I can read you like a book," Scarlet smiled.  
"Is that supposed to be some sort of composure!? Because it's not helping in such a forced attempt at humoring us!" Selena wailed into high heavens.  
"Selena is clearly a judgemental type of person," I said out loud and nodded to myself, "uh-huh. I certainly wouldn't want her in an espionage mission."  
Of course, I said that on purpose. Since from past experiences, to name one, Emigrace, describing a person in a way they wouldn't want to be would anger them. For an awkward conversation, this is proving quite entertaining.  
"No one asked for a robot's opinion!" Selena, who is clearly agitated to the point beyond disbelief.  
"Too much protesting is suspicious," Xiu, who remained quiet up to now spoke up.  
"Shut it!" Selena roared.  
"You can tell your sister, I won't judge," Scarlet stood up from her spot on the cold stone floor to rest both her hands on Selena's shoulders. She locked her gaze on Selena, making her even more nervous with each passing second of silence.

Selena didn't say a thing, she was embarrassed but mostly angry. I have doubts that she likes someone, but as Emigrace did mention the fact we are teenagers in a school training students to be full-fledged soldiers. Teenagers going through puberty, as explained and lectured to us in class, a process that occurs to people between ages ten to twenty, where the body undergoes a complete change in preparation for adulthood. For males, testosterone hormone kicks in and hair starts growing in various places. Our voice gets seemingly deeper because of the change in our vocal cords, and we learn about the reproductive cycle-I guess I should stop there. Perhaps this is what people mean by me being a "robot," but I think I'm quite humorous... maybe.  
"Don't you have anything to say for yourself!?" Selena pointed at me, trying to avoid her sister's gaze.  
I snapped out of thoughts to reply, "nothing really, I'm just thinking about something Emigrace said."  
That last part slipped out. I tend to say what was on my mind when I'm deep in thought.  
"Emigrace? The Head of Recruitment?" Xiu asked, interested judging from her tone.  
"Yeah," I nod, "she's my caretaker."  
"Your what?" Selena leaned in, also interested.  
At least this drew away the awkward atmosphere of people's love lives, I thought.  
"My caretaker," I spoke louder. In response, everyone stood there like statues with open mouths.  
As expected, this will draw attention from the others, but they get a chance to learn more about me.  
"I dunno what to say to this," Yuro said, eyes wide open as he returned from the shadows that he was hiding in.  
"You appeared out of nowhere," I said, barely showing any surprise to his sudden appearance.  
"That's beside the point, what do you mean she's your caretaker?" Selena annoyingly demanded.  
"As I said it. She's. My. Caretaker," I tried to talk slower to push it into their thick skulls.  
"No, we get that. But explain how she took care of you?" Scarlet asked, more politely than her bashful younger sister.  
Sheesh, right to the point. I hardly remember anything in my past, I thought.  
"Well.. around seven years ago, she was on a scouting mission to find people to recruit, and she found me, and took me in to train and lecture. That about sums it up," I try to explain.

I hardly remember a thing, all I remember was that I was in the Light Faction and I was taken in by Emigrace at a young age. Any time between that and my first year in the Illusion Academy is a big mystery. Of course, I left out the Light Faction part, just in case it spurs any kind of resentment from the rest of them, which I wouldn't want, and certainly something Emigrace or Ace wouldn't want either. Yes, I would be lying to them with a small detail of my past, but it's better than possible resentment for being affiliated with the opposing faction in some way.

".. Anything else?" Xiu continued to persist, her eyes glittering with excitement.  
"Nope. I don't remember anything else after that anyway," I say, shrugging it off as if it was nothing.

Truth be told, it's wasn't nothing. I want to remember what I did for the past seven years. But every time I try to recall my lost memories, my head starts hurting and I lose that thought. It may be better to live in ignorance about my past. After all, ignorance is bliss, as my English professor would say often in his lectures.

"That sounds kinda fishy," Xiu said, looking doubtful.  
"It is what it is, don't blame me for not remembering. I have a bad memory, y'know?" I said sharply.  
I guess these country slangs are starting to stick in my head now, sheesh. What a pain, I thought.  
"Speaking of 'fishy' things," Yuro called from the corner he was idling in, "can we PLEASE start eating?" he groaned in pain, with both of his hands holding up against his stomach as if he's trying to push down his body's need for food.  
"Oh... hahaha... I guess we were so caught up in that conversation that I forgot to unpack the rations," Xiu nervously said, playing with her fingers as usual.  
"A forced conversation, I might add," I said coldly.  
"I couldn't help it! Selena was asking for one!" Xiu shot back at me.  
"That doesn't mean you had to open up with an uncomfortable topic," I said, again in a toneless voice.  
"Just drop it, we need to prioritize our hunger," Scarlet ordered with her demanding voice and firm presence.

At that moment, Xiu nodded and started taking out the rations out of the huge backpack she was carrying all the way here. I thankfully take my share of a water bottle, a few energy bars, and canned meat. What surprises me wasn't the saddening contents of the meal itself, it was how much authority Scarlet has over us. I suppose that is expected since she is the first seat in the Elite Division. Not that I'm jealous or anything, I would rather have it this way. It's too tiring giving orders to others, but that's how I see things. I'm usually the one being ordered around anyway, so I don't see any real need to change my position. Actually, now that I think about it, that sounds depressing from an outside view, doesn't it? ... I shouldn't think about it.

Once we all got our share, we pulled off the lid of the canned meat. I think a few of us gagged at the poor sight of the oval tin can being stuffed with pinkish meat. Oddly, with yellow textures in it. I couldn't tell if there was any smell at all, probably because of the long day. At this point, I don't think we cared what we were about to eat, we were hungry. If one were to reject eating this, it would most likely be Selena, due to her easily disgusted and agitated attitude towards things and Yuro. Then, I must prepare myself if Selena comes after any of our heads for fresh, human meat--that might not happen since I know that girl is at least capable of gulping down this... horrible excuse for a meal. Despite the long pause, it took us to even begin digging in; we started gorging it down as if we haven't eaten in weeks. I suppose we all had the same thought process, "maybe if I scarf all of this down my throat, the disgusting taste won't register to my brain," or maybe I'm being silly since I didn't even reach that conclusion myself, I was just hungry. After all, whenever I had to eat something I didn't like, Emigrace would forcefully push it down my throat if I was being remarkably unreasonable. For some reason, horrible life lessons from Emigrace are embedded into mind, yet what I actually did is still a fuzzy mess. Well, because of that, I have the need to gorge down everything in front of me, or else she'll force-feed me. From what I recall from such an important experience, it was really painful, knowing that she was shoving her hand full of food into my mouth.

Seriously, can I remember something meaningful about my past, and not something so unnecessary. Well, I suppose it reminded me that I was a picky eater, but that isn't as meaningful as what I would want to know. All of it frustrates me. Even though I couldn't express that on the outside, I felt it on the inside.

After finishing the meal, I placed on the ground next to me and grabbed the water bottle near me, twisting it open and enclosing my mouth all around the edges, holding up my head as I gulped down heavy amounts of water to refresh my body. I lowered my head and popped my lips off the top, sighing with relief, I take a short glance to the rest of my teammates. Who were still attempting to eat their canned grub. They haven't picked up on the fact that I've already finished, except for a half-full water bottle and two untouched energy bars. This group is certainly interesting, for having such a humorous conversation earlier, despite we almost died from that boss Heartless and had to trek in the heavy rain back there. It almost amuses me to think people can relax so quickly, well, this is a hunting mission, after all, on a real battlefield, I expect them to be tenser and on high-alert than this. We don't have any real problems to deal with at the moment, other than the lack of fire and soaked clothes. I guess they have no real problems at all, laughing and talking to each other as if it's a normal day at school. I focus my gaze on Yuro, who has been eating quietly for a while. It was weird. Normally, he'll be bursting with energy like he did a while back before we found the clearing. Now, he looks gloomy. I wonder if there's something on his mind. I walk over to him, slightly patting his back in a friendly manner, bending down to meet his eyes before speaking,

"Is something wrong?" I asked, still toneless.  
Yuro gulped down a bit of water before answering in a lowered tone, "Yes."  
So something is wrong. If I make one more push, maybe he'll tell me.  
"Want to talk about it?" I try to maintain a soft tone.  
He nods slowly and begins to talk, "the Calamity Project."  
I look at him with a confused look, "what about it?"  
"Is it really about building a utopia?" he asks, narrowing his eyes on me.

I froze up. What have they been telling them? Emigrace states it was for economic advancement and technological advancement, which is why we are fighting the Light Faction in the first place. It wasn't about the Yin Yang concept Ace mentioned, it was about our own advancement for the betterment of the human species. That's all they told me. But I didn't know they have been lying to the people outside of the Elite Division. What is this about a utopia? A utopia is commonly seen as "the perfect city," are they deceiving the public?

As soon as I was continuing deeper into these thoughts, I felt a sharp electrifying pain in my head. I grip my head with both of my hands, trying to regain control. Once I did, I forgot what I was thinking about. Frustrated, again, I ask Yuro what he meant, he replies,  
"They intend to create the perfect utopia by combining the two factions, but what I don't get is why we have to fight them," his eyes continuing to pierce me, "you understand, right?"  
I nod, "yeah," gripping the tip of my chin, I speak, "perhaps it's the belief of Yin and Yang."  
"Yin and Yang?" he asked, oblivious to the term.  
"It's the belief of two forces forever clashing, but will never join together. A force where both must co-exist. That's why we split up into Light and Darkness because our ancestors believed in that belief. The Light Faction wants to respect their ancestors and protect this balance, the Darkness Faction doesn't. The addition of 'Faction' to each of the forces came about when the Calamity Project started," I slowly explain in detail to him.  
"So it's just a political war between the both forces?" Yuro wondered, hoping for clarification for his own thoughts.  
"That's right. The Darkness Faction is trying to erase this belief to build a perfect utopia by joining together with the Light Faction," I say with a deadpan voice and stare.  
What am I saying? These aren't my thoughts. Why can't I do anything? What happened to the free will I've gained a few days ago? Did it vanish?  
I quickly snap back into reality, looking at the vision of Yuro staring at me with concern.  
"Kazu, can I tell you something?" he asked, looking away.  
"Huh? Sure," I nodded.  
"It's something about my past that's been bothering me," he whispered.

**The future has been torn by antimony. You'll be the one to change it, with your power and those who support you.**

**END**

**NEXT TIME:**

_**THE STRUGGLE OF THE POOR** _

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello and happy July everyone! Please enjoy this fresh chapter I've prepared, and tell me on what I should improve on and what you liked. I'm open to criticism anytime.**


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